Leaders kick off 'Million Pound Challenge'

Published 4:38 pm, Wednesday, January 29, 2014

Mayor Annise Parker and local business leaders on Wednesday kicked off a community-wide effort to get Houstonians to lose weight with a goal of reducing the city's obesity rate by 10 percent.

The Million Pound Challenge encourages major employers to recruit 50,000 employees to voluntarily pledge and lose a combined total of one million pounds. The campaign, which promotes healthy eating, regular exercise and competition to motivate weight loss, is being coordinated by nonprofit Shape up Houston and will include a website on which participants can track their weight loss.

"Obesity is not about vanity, it's about health and economics," said Lan Bentsen, founder and chairman of Shape Up Houston. "Obesity is the gateway to diabetes, heart disease, stroke, and cancer. And it comes with a price tag."

According to the Texas Comptroller's office obesity cost the state's businesses $9.5 billion in insurance costs in 2010.

Bentsen launched Shape Up Houston in 2012 with an initial focus on the Texas Medical Center, where wellness coordinators for several member facilities, joined forces to emphasis fitness and healthy lifestyles for TMC employees.

The Million Pound Challenge will combine personal responsibility with community awareness of obesity issues. It even will allow employers to challenge other employers to contests involving employees weight loss efforts.

Parker said the initiative resonated with her.

"What's always in the back of my mind is that my father died at the age of 51," the mayor said. "He was a marathon runner ... and was in excellent shape, but he was a smoker. He used to think he could make this bargain that if he ran more and exercised more, he could keep smoking. And the message is that you can't make those kinds of bargains. This is about making me healthier for myself and for my family."

Among the city's efforts are growing community gardens, educating children about fitness, and making the city more accessible for cyclists by creating safer bike routes, Parker said.

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